23-year-old Ben Bell could be new Gore District mayor

Ben Bell could be the Gore District Council’s new mayor in a race that’s still too close to call.

Preliminary results announced Sunday put the young tech entrepreneur on 2346 votes – just 13 ahead of incumbent Tracy Hicks on 2333 with 67 special votes still to be counted.

A final result won’t be released until Thursday making the district one of the last to be called in New Zealand.

Hicks has served seven terms as Gore District’s mayor while newcomer Bell ran as part of “Team Hokonui” and could be the youngest ever elected mayor in New Zealand after Campbell Barry won the mayoralty for Hutt City at the age of 28 in 2019.

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Bell said he was “ecstatic”.

While he acknowledged that “you never know with those special votes”, he only needed 21 votes from 67 to win, he said.

His first priority as mayor would be “getting back to basics”, Bell said.

He planned to go through past budgets and look at spending on things like rural reading, infrastructure and recycling, as he believed the Gore District Council had not been putting its money in the right places in recent years.

Bell worked for the Horizons Regional Council, where he was a data analyst for the hydrology team, and then the lead co-ordinator for civil defence dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hicks said it was a “very close call” and “it’s going to be fascinating to watch those special votes come in”.

This campaign had been a very different experience for the long-time mayor, he said, partly because of the use of social media which hadn’t been part of his “playbook” in the past.

He also felt much of the focus had been on national issues, rather than local.

With reform on the horizon, Hicks believed the next three years would be challenging for local government, requiring skill and expertise to ensure the district remained in a strong position.

There will be four new faces around the council table when it meets next. Former council planning consultant Keith Hovell and Team Hokonui member Joe Stringer have been elected in the district wide electorate, while in the Gore ward Paul McPhail and Team Hokonui member Robert McKenzie have been elected.

Incumbents who faced the ballot box and have been returned to office are Bronwyn Reid, Bret Highsted, Glenys Dickson, and Richard McPhail. Neville Phillips, John Gardyne and Stewart MacDonell were elected unopposed.

The election of Richard and Paul McPhail will see brothers sitting on the Gore District Council for the first time in its history.

Preliminary results:

Gore District Council

Gore District Mayoralty

Ben Bell (Team Hokonui) – 2346

Tracy Hick – 2333

Gore Ward (5 vacancies)

Bret Highsted – 1675

Bronwyn Reid – 1669

Paul McPhail – 1667

Glenys Dickson – 1546

Robert (Caveman) McKenzie (Team Hokonui) – 1431

*****

Nick Grant – 1362

Stephen McStay – 928

Janeen Reti (Team Hokonui) – 766

Reuben Rupi Turipa – 743

District-wide (3 vacancies)

Richard McPhail – 3417

Joe Stringer (Team Hokonui) – 2639

Keith Hovell (Positive Change) – 2212

*****

Steven Boko Dixon – 1824

Liz Adams-Gray – 950

Mataura Community Board

Five vacancies

Darren Matahiki – 301

Steven Boko Dixon – 296

Nicky Coats – 252

Laurel Turnbull – 2525

Colleen Te Au – 198

*****

Constance Waihape – 189

Matu-Taera Coleman-Clarke – 186

Melissa Storer – 169

Tanya Rowling – 151

Gina Adcock – 116

Mataura Licensing Trust

Ward 2 Gore (three vacancies)

Bryan (Bunny) Burgess – 2013

Jimmy Allison – 1813

Craig Marshall – 1461

*****

Alan Byrne – 1441

Ward 3 Mataura (1 vacancy)

Brendon (Moe) Murray – 321

*****

Colleen Te Au – 163